1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a method for checking nozzles of internal-combustion engines, with the nozzles being installed and in particular checked for their correct installation and/or operation prior to the complete assembly of the respective internal-combustion engine.
2. Prior Art.
Internal-combustion engines are usually equipped with fuel injection nozzles. In addition, more modern internal-combustion engines, in particular high-performance engines, have piston cooling nozzles, which spray oil against the bottom end of the piston, in particular in cooling ducts or supply ducts emanating from the bottom end of the pistons. These types of nozzles must not only generate a jet having a certain geometry, in particular a certain cross-section, but more importantly the jet must also follow a precisely determined direction in order that the oil of the piston cooling nozzles reaches the respective cooling duct or supply duct at the lower end of each piston. Consequently, the checking of injection nozzles as well as piston cooling nozzles must primarily be capable of determining jet geometry and jet direction.
Known prior to the invention has been the checking of nozzles, in particular injection nozzles, after they have been installed in the cylinder head but before the cylinder head has been mounted on the engine block. Here only the function of the injection nozzles is checked by an operating test, which merely shows whether or not the injection nozzle is in order. However, the jet geometry and particularly the jet direction cannot be determined by this known test. The same holds true for piston cooling nozzles. Here it is particularly crucial to test their jet direction in order to ensure that the jet of oil emitted from the piston cooling nozzles in the assembled engine also reaches the correct position at the bottom side of the respective piston, in particular the piston cooling duct or supply duct.